Jüdisches Museum Hohenems

All about Tel Aviv-Jaffa. The Invention of a CityApril 7 until October 6, 2019

These days, hardly any other metropolis is being celebrated as much as Tel Aviv—as an open-minded party city, as a Mecca for startups, as “White City“ and, with more than 4000 buildings, as the “worldwide largest ensemble of Bauhaus architecture.“ Or simply as an oasis in the midst of Israel’s, Palestine’s, and the Middle East’s national and social as well as religious and violent conflicts.

The first “Hebrew city“ of modernity was founded as a suburb of Jaffa, the old Arab port city. However, after the war of 1948, Jaffa’s few unwrecked structures turned into a picturesque backdrop for tourists and a backyard of the booming city. To this day, Tel Aviv-Jaffa attempts at reinventing itself time and again.

The exhibition “All about Tel Aviv” takes a look—together with Tel Aviv-born photographer Peter Loewy—behind the scenes of this successful city branding. It delves into the myths, abysses, and complex realities of this city that was built and shaped by legal and illegal immigrants and refugees. A city that tries to forget its own history—and to repress anything that is not “white.”